One of the special parts of buying locally is being able to visit all of the farms that supply us year round with well-thought and well-crafted ingredients. Thankfully, the farm purveyors come to us in the summer time when I haven’t a second to do anything but receive all of their good work at the boat. Yesterday, however, I had the special chance to visit East Forty Farm.
The cheesemaker herself
The farm is owned by Neal Foley and Allison Lakin who recently married and have only been on the property for a couple of years. Individually, they’ve been honing their crafts for years with Neal providing nose to tail farming and cookery of all sort of animals from duck to beef and in our case, pork. Allison is an award-winning cheese maker and supplies the Riggin with gorgeous cheese from her creamery, Lakin’s Gorges Cheese. In addition to everything else, they now offer classes and farm to table dinners to draw fans of their good work to their spot in Waldoboro, Maine.
Deliciousness on a platter
Heaven
Neal and I actually met years ago when, on his former farm, he taught comprehensive butchering classes with Kate Hill of Camont in Gascony, France. Kate lives in France and comes over at least once a year to collaborate with Neal on traditional French cooking. My love of cassoulet didn’t begin with these two, but it certainly was fostered and encouraged.
Neal the farmer with maybe one of our pigs afoot. Photo courtesy of East Forty Farm
For the first time, I got to see where our cheese is made and even the cows that supply some of the milk for said cheese. And while I didn’t get to meet our actual pig (except in the form of cuts from the freezer), I did get to see where they wander and root in the wooded lots on the farm. This is the next group to come up the ranks and with a couple more to follow. In addition, the cows, milked daily were lazing in the sun when I arrived and as I approached, they roused themselves to greet me.
Isn’t’ her face pretty?
As I drove home through the Maine countryside on curving two-lane roads, I was surrounded by the last vestiges of fall – the colors of the leaves dimming to amber interspersed with clusters of green spruce and the splash of white bark from the birch trees. The sun dappled the fields and farmhouses as I passed and I found myself grateful to live here and to be a part of a local economy that fosters a healthy, wholesome way of life.
Maybe there names are Pork and Bacon? Photo courtesy of East Forty Farm
Babies and their mama in the woods
Cute, huh?
Annie
Got my fill of farm goodness
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